54" Maple (Full Draw Pics Added)

[skarhand]

I am really excited about how this bow turned out. I decided to make another bow for my son because someone who was looking at his first one pulled it to about 28" before I could stop them. It didn't break it, but it damaged the wood and it took about 5" of set, and had a bad hinge. Since it was the first bow I ever made, we decided to retire it before it snapped and make Nate a new one. Here it is:

Maple backed with rawhide. 52" nock to nock, pulls #18 @ 16". 4" grip with 1.5" fades. 1.5" wide at the fades tapering to 1/2" tips. Grip is a slice of cherry and ash. With a wedge of industrial strength velcro (fuzzy side only) for the arrow pass. Has about 1/2" of set (string follow? what is the difference) I wrapped the ends and splices of the rawhide with red serving string and superglue. Put some dark stain on the rawhide, and since is was from a dog bone it was not perfectly uniform which give it some really cool character. Finished the whole bow with 7-8 coats of shellac.  Full(ish) draw pic is my wife since she wouldn't let me wake Nate up last night for a picture...something about, never going back to sleep or some such nonsense.













Thanks for looking and passing on to me a fraction of all ya'alls knowhow.

Skar (Joshua)

[paoliguy]

you know, you wake me up and give me a new bow ... I wouldn't go back to sleep either! Hope your little guy enjoys it!

[BOWMAN53]

looks great, your son will love it.

[skarhand]

Thanks guys!

We broke it in this evening; put about 50 arrows through it and it shoots very smooth. This bow is 6" longer then the other one and I think it fits him better.

[BowEd]

Wonderful job for your son.Bet he's thrilled.That maple has some pretty grain to it.

[Badly Bent]

Nicely done and looks like the bow fits the young man perfectly.He has the determined look of serious archer in the making

[skarhand]

Nicely done and looks like the bow fits the young man perfectly.He has the determined look of serious archer in the making

Yes, he does like it a lot. We are working on practicing good form. Any ideas for a book, website, anything else to help me help him? Don't really know anywhere around here or even if there is such a thing as "Archery lessons". What little I know I learned while helping out at a JOAD (Jr. Olympic Archery Development) Club back when I was in CA.

[Badly Bent]

I don't see anything to critique about his form at all, looks like he has everything perfectly in line. Don't know of any books on shooting  but he really doesn't look like he'll need that. At that age I think it is best to just keep it fun for em' so they don't lose interest, things like shooting at balloons and such. They love popping one of those with an arrow and will really focus in order to do it. 

[TimPotter]

Nicely done! The pic of your son drawing it is priceless.